MILAN – With a total revenue of 3.8 billion euros, the Italian coffee industry is a leading sector and a driving force in the nation’s food industry. Italian roasters process more than 10 million bags of coffee every year.
Exports of all forms of coffee reached 5.8 million bags in 2021. Italian manufacturers lead the way also for professional espresso equipment. With a turnover of nearly 250 million euros, the professional coffee grinding industry represents 40% of global production.
In a report published last month in the Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily newspaper, Carlotta Clerici takes stock of the Italian coffee sector, with a special emphasis on the remarkable growth of Eureka, a leading coffee grinder brand of the Conti Valerio company from Florence.
Here follows the English translation of the article from the October 17th issue of Il Corriere della Sera.
By Carlotta Clerici
Coffee continues to run its race and professional equipment manufacturers are grinding the earnings. On the occasion of World Coffee Day, which was celebrated the first of October, the good news arrived from a sector that is showing signs of health and that is seeing its Italian SMEs in the front lines of innovation.
The 2021 revenue from the Italian coffee industry was equal to 3.8 billion euros and, as revealed by the Italian Food Union – Coffee, the annual volume of green raw material transformed by companies is equal to nearly 10.1 million bags. In Italy, the yearly per capita consumption of coffee is 5.3kg and many of the companies that suffered in 2020 due to the pandemic have restarted in 2021.
A year of growth, therefore, for the majority of companies operating in the sector, with a few Made in Italy niches showing particular performance. Amongst these, the professional coffee grinding industry, with a market that amounts to a turnover of nearly 250 million euros in Italy and which represents 40% of the global production.
Also considering the market value of products aimed at home use, alone, the industry of grinding equipment exceeds the billion-euro mark at a world-wide level. In the professional sector it’s Italy to have the lead, with an export percentage covering almost the entirety of the production destined for bars and restaurants everywhere in the world.
Ranking of the companies Made in Italy
In the ranking of the sector’s first companies, after consulting the financial statements just published, the remarkable growth of Eureka stands out, leading brand of the Conti Valerio company from Florence, founded in the far 1920, which has assumed over the last couple of years the towing role of a healthy niche and which in 2022 has managed, for the time being, to absorb the increasing costs of raw materials and energy without dumping them on the final price.
“We have invested for time in innovation and human resources and now we reap the rewards – explains Maurizio Fiorani, CEO of Eureka – In the last two years the habits of everyday life, changed by the pandemic and smart working, have led people with passion (hobbyists) towards professional equipment capable of guaranteeing the perfect result in cup and we’ve managed to meet this demand, with market data that has registered international growth peaks reaching over 40%. In 2021, on the other hand, the clear growth has affected both the consumer market and professional market, which has now returned to its dominance”.
Acquisitions and doubling of production
In 2021 the Conti Valerio Srl has registered a revenue of 61.5 million euros, with an increase of over 50% from its preceding year and reaching an export quota equal to 98% of its total revenue. In mild growth is also the Italian market, while the order lists of out-of-EU countries have doubled since the year before. Always in 2021, the company, counting over hundred employees, has strengthened its partnership with Italmill from Bergamo, historic company in the mechanics of precision, whose know-how has allowed it to integrate the production line, internalizing the production of its innovative burrs.
The year 2023 will see the completion of the new facility of 4,500 square meters adjacent to the historic headquarters in Sesto Fiorentino (FI), making it an investment that will lead to the substantial doubling of the surface and the company’s production capacity.
The keys to this success are found in investments made in research and development, with technological pluses such as the introduction of IoT Connectivity, which guarantees the functional control and grinding parameters remotely and in real time. Next is the mechanics, with newest generation grinding burrs “Diamond Inside”, the final result of a patented process for the thermal cryogenic treatment which preserves over a longer period of time the geometry of the blade, this way maintaining the granulometry over a greater quantity of coffee, compared to standard burrs.
Link to the original article.
